Juvenile Justice

A desire to protect young women may be doing more harm than good. For nearly two decades, Bernalillo County’s juvenile justice system has adjusted its approaches to young people to reduce incarcerating them. But in 2015, they saw spikes in the girls’ detention population so significant they were required to open a second unit for girls several times throughout the year to accommodate the increase. Their reform efforts had overall led to dramatic reductions in juvenile incarcerations—as much as 74 percent. But those efforts weren’t reaching girls as effectively as boys, and no one had pulled the data apart to see that in a decade.

Why do they run away? That was the question Bernalillo County’s juvenile justice program staff wanted answered after they noticed a trend. In Albuquerque’s South Valley, youth were leaving home while under house arrest, prompting a warrant and jail time. “We decided to start our work there, at that one point in the system,” said Gerri Bachicha, juvenile detention alternatives administrator for Bernalillo County. They took the question to the kids themselves.